Discussion on Digitalization and Carbon Neutrality Highlighted in Fourth Session of Management Forum
In a series of discussions, Toyota has set its sights on leading the automobile industry towards a more sustainable future. Akio, the President of Toyota, has added a goal for a mobility society that offers happiness for all to the existing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Toyota sees its role in carbon neutrality as focusing on energy-saving, technology development, and building partnerships. Operating Officer Masanori Kuwata has presented two pillars that Toyota should focus on for the next three years: digitalization and carbon neutrality. Akio has committed to making rapid advances in digitalization over this period, aiming to bring Toyota up to the level of world-class digitalization.
The strength of Toyota lies in driving electrification across all areas, providing a wide range of electrified powertrain solutions including HEVs, PHEVs, and BEVs. For the time being, it is important to focus on HEVs, which have been proven to greatly reduce CO2, as a starting point for working towards carbon neutrality. Toyota can optimize its HEVs for future electrification by innovating in the area of software controls.
Toyota can convert TNGA platforms capable of accommodating HEVs to create BEVs as required, adopting a strategy that features a mix of BEV, HEV, and PHEV variants within the same model. PHEVs, surprisingly, have lower CO2 emissions than BEVs over the life cycle.
The challenge of carbon neutrality is to reduce CO2 emissions throughout the entire life cycle of a vehicle, requiring cooperation beyond the automobile industry. CO2 is emitted at every stage of a product's life cycle, including production, use, and disposal, and the CO2 value assigned to a product depends on the energy mix of the country where it is made. Even workplaces that use renewable electricity or hand-made mechanisms still emit CO2 in the production and transport of materials.
Prime Minister Suga's pledge of carbon neutrality aims to reduce all CO2 emissions to net-zero by 2050. Akio believes that Toyota can serve as a leader in the happiness of the entire automobile industry, working 'for our partners in the automobile industry', 'for society', and 'for the children of the future' to achieve different and better results in the next decade.
The discussions described in this four-part series have set the starting point for building the future of the automobile industry together with its many partners. Executive Fellow Shigeki Terashi promoted electrification as a solution to carbon neutrality. Toyota management has identified digitalization and carbon neutrality as key focus areas to become an industry leader.
As Toyota makes strides towards digitalization and carbon neutrality, Toyota Times will continue to watch those efforts closely moving forward.
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